Branding, Part Two: Presenting a United Front

If you want to see an extreme example of a strong brand, watch the open to Steve Colbert’s The Colbert Report (Comedy Channel).

I’m not talking politics here; I’m talking execution.

Steve Colbert hijacked Fox pundit and cult hero Bill O’Reilly’s persona, made it even more extreme (if that’s possible), and forged a brand so strong that his cult status has eclipsed O’Reilly’s.

With his Republican good looks, Colbert could be an up-and-coming mouthpiece for the religious right. He has perfected several mannerisms that serve him well: whipping off his glasses and staring hard into the camera; running around the set cult-hero style.

The open is a montage of Extreme Patriotism: an animated screaming eagle; pounding, repetitious music; Colbert waving the American flag with fanatic glee; the patented removal of his glasses. And the most chilling shot: he stands, arms folded against his dark conservative suit, smugly evil as he absorbs the accolades of an adoring public—a buttoned-down David Koresh.

It is perfect.

Nothing is wasted. Everything is unified, everything projects the brand.

Not only is the open strong, but so is the rest of the show. Colbert never once loses focus on his brand. Each segment reinforces his arrogance: his “Tip of the Hat, Wag of the Finger”, the way he treats his guests, and his word for the day. (He even invented a word that will soon find its way into the dictionary: “truthiness”.)

I may not be able to come up with a strong brand for myself, but boy, I know it when I see it. And from Colbert, I’ve learned this: For a strong brand, you need to present a united front. If you’re blogging about down-home recipes and talking homilies one day and writing dirty sex talk the next, you’re going to fragment your brand.

As a former opera singer, I learned about overtones. When you are on key, there are overtones all the way up the scale, reinforcing the note you are singing. I believe this is the most important thing in branding; presenting that unified front.

Is branding persona? I think to a large degree, it is. As an author, you’re selling two things: your books, and yourself. Stephen King never needed any help—his books were so strong from the git-go—but his gangly, creepy looks did not hurt. From the very beginning, his publicity photos enhanced that image. Dean Koontz really broke out with the book WATCHERS; in pretty much every recent publicity photo you see him with his golden retriever, because goldens and Koontz are symbiotic. (And, too, because he loves his golden.)

Whenever you try something new on your blog or develop promotional materials, ask yourself this: does it fit with what I’ve been doing so far?

Say what you like about Paris Hilton, she’s got a brand. And she doesn’t mess it up by visiting orphans in Africa.